Condensation Particle Counters (CPCs) and Optical Particle Counters (OPCs) are apparatus typically used in various applications to detect and count airborne particles.
Clean areas for manufacturing of pharmaceutical products are required to be monitored for both total particle contamination and microbial contamination. ISO Standard 14644 defines clean room classification standards for total particle concentration versus particle size, while ISO 14698-1 establishes concentration standards for biocontamination control. Real time monitoring, with reporting within minutes, of both total particles and biological particles is highly desirable to provide rapid response and correction of contamination, and to provide a fast report that processed materials are free of contamination. Real time monitoring contrasts with traditional batch monitoring methods in which particles are collected and incubated over multiple hours or days to produce colony counts that can be related to viable bacterial particles. For effective monitoring, inspection of at least one cubic meter of air in one hour or less is very desirable.